cemented
by lizziriot
Summary: Arynn's destroying her past and anything that get in her way, but what if the pas catches her, and it means her life?


A thorn covered branch scrapes my cheek as I run. I can hear myself, pounding heart, ragged breathing, feet slamming against earth, racing to save my life. I can sense them, hearing their blood-scented laughter as they get closer to me. I glance out of the corner of my eyes to measure their distance; less than twenty-five yards away. Swallowing a scream, I force my already aching legs to move faster, cursing as my left foot catches on a rock, causing me to topple over. I tell myself to get up, keep running, but I'm too weak to move. They approach me, snickering, one of them pulling me up, locking my arms behind my back.

"I've quite enjoyed our little game of cat and mouse, but it's time to give up, little Arynn. Look at me, dear child. It was the leader of the, a tall male with hair the color of sunshine and navy-blue eyes. He looks no older than twenty, certainly not old enough to call me 'child'. His tone is gentle, almost kind. I refuse to lift my gaze.

"I said, look at me!" he grabs my chin and I spit at him, he expects it and moves his head to the side, avoiding he liquid. I glare at him insolently. He laughs and runs a finger over my cheek, bringing it up to his mouth and licking the blood off. I glimpse sharp whit points. His fangs. He laughs again.

"Have you ever realized that your hair matches your blood?" he wraps a piece of my dark red curls around his finger and rips it out of my scalp. I still don't make a noise.

"Wouldn't it be nice to immortalize this hair, this face, these beautiful brown eyes?" I see some of the surrounding vampires look at each other, their expressions confused. This isn't the plan.

"What do you say? Accept immortality. Be who you were born to be." He presses a violent kiss against my unwilling lips. His mouth tastes like blood and I nearly vomit. He pulls away and I spit again, trying to get the ghost of blood out of my mouth.

"I would rather burn." I breathe.

He looks at me for a moment "and so you shall." He nods at the other vampires and they launch themselves at me.

"Pity." I hear him say as the first set of dagger-like teeth pierce my skin and my vision fades

…

I'm awoken by my own screams. A face is peering at me from my makeshift door.

"Brick, how many time have I told you to stay the fuck out of my room?" I grab my boot and throw it at him. It misses by inches and falls on the floor with a dull 'thud'.

"You were screaming. It woke Sarai and Rain up. What's going on?"

"Go away." I mumble, feeling a wave of exhaustion crash over me. I lay back down, only to sit back up again, my bed's soaked through with cold sweat. Brick's still standing in my doorway.

"What do you want?" I snarl.

"To know what's going on. This is the third time you've woken everyone up with your screeching."

"It's nothing." I peel my blanket off and travel to my so-called vanity, little more than a water basing and large piece of broken mirror balanced on a rickety table. Splashing my face, I sense Brick creep closer to me. I glance in the mirror and staring back at me is the ghost of a seventeen-year-old girl. Once wild, fire colored curls now hang limp around her pale heart-shaped face. Wide, empty, brown eyes fringed with thick lashes and ringed by dark circles. A small nose and full lips marred by a crescent moon shaped scar, running from the side of the nose to the haughty chin. Hollowed cheeks. Once upon a time, she was beautiful. But that time was long gone. I turn away from my reflection without realizing how close Brick had gotten. I bump into him and he stares down at me, easily six inches taller, muscular, broad shouldered, droopy hazel eyes and shaggy blond hair coupled with reddish stubble. If it hadn't been for the apocalypse, I could have liked him. But not now. The hatred and anger leave no room in my heart for affection.

"Leave."

He gives me one last pleading look before disappearing behind the curtain.

…

Getting dressed, I try to remember how it was before _they_ took over. I was thirteen, bouncing from foster home to foster home. They took over slowly, stealthily. The news started talking about deaths, random, public and never any leads on the murderer. Then they came out into the open, they gained every ounce of power over night and the humans didn't seem to care. The creatures gave them two choices. Die or become cattle. Everyone I knew chose the latter. I chose neither. One night, a group of them broke into my house. They killed my foster family and made me watch as they drained their blood. It was that moment that I learned what they really were. Vampires. I had read book about the creatures, thinking they were beautiful, romantic, jaded beings. How wrong I was. One of them, an angelic one with golden hair and dark eyes offered me immortality. I refused and ran. He let me go, promising that this wasn't the last time he we would meet again.

Eventually I found Sarai and Rain. They were hunters, a few years older than I was. They took me in and trained me. A couple months later, we find Brick and he starts training as well. While Sarai remains neutral, Rain favors him, so I work has hard as possible to earn their favor, practicing for hours at a time, till I'm drenched with sweat and barely able to stand. And all that work paid off. Four years later, I've killed more vampires than any of them, only being wounded one, during my first kill. Rain knows this and hates me for it.

"Arynn!" I'm snapped out of my thoughts.

"Speak of the devil." I grumble to my walls.

I walk through the narrow hall of the abandoned house we use as our headquarters/living space into the kitchen. Rain and Sarai sit at the plastic table going over notes. They're mirror images of each other, short black hair, olive skin, and dark eyes. Brick starts to noisily busy himself with his meat of cold cereal, avoiding my gaze,

"We've discovered a camp of vampires in the woods near Kent." Sarai states, business-like as usual. "Because you know that area better than the rest of us, you will be accompanying Rain on the raid."

I hesitate for a moment, "why Rain? I can go on my own-"

"Because," Rain interrupts, "there's a lot of leeches. More than your ass can handle. And I found them, I get first dibs." She props her boots up on the table and starts lacing them.

I bite back a retort and turn to Sarai. "When are we leaving?"

"As soon as you can."

I nod, and turn to go to my room, deciding against breakfast.

…

As we drive through Seattle and on to I5, Rain decides to start taunting me.

"Why'd you want to go alone, huh? Afraid I might show you up? Thinking you're bad ass because you've made a couple of easy kills," she snorts, "You're nothing compared to my sister and I. I don't even know why we took your scrawny ass in. if it were up to me, you'd have been vamp chow long ago."

I continue to stare out the window, trying to tune her out. She's trying to psyche my up so I make a mistake and get killed.

"Save it, will you?"

She smirks but doesn't say anything else.

Fifteen minutes later we pull into a once suburban neighborhood of Kent, Washington. I feel a rush of nostalgia as we pass the burnt skeletons of houses and a fresh pang of rage as I remember the creatures torching the houses, driving the humans out of hiding. We park on the side of the road and silently walk through a field that housed a trail that led to my old elementary school. Instead of following that trail, Rain leads me into a thick patch of trees. She motions at me to stay quiet as we walk deeper into the forest. Something inside of me tells me that this was a mistake, vampires never live in the woods, they prefer gauche mansions and needless luxury. I stop.

"Come on, just a bit further." Rain whispers.

I shake my head. "This isn't right."

I hear the snap of a twig and move to draw my knife. A hand closed around my throat, blocking my oxygen.

"Don't move, or I'll break your neck." A sinister voice growls in my ear.

I look at Rain and she standing there, arms folded, a look of determination glued on to her face.

"Loosen your hold. I want her living." A voice says. My heart stops. It's the voice from my nightmares. Liam. The vampire holding me switches his grip from my neck to my arms. I stare at rain.

"Why?"

She rolls her eyes at me. "I never wanted this, killing things to survive. Then you came along, cementing me into this path-"

"I didn't force-"

"Yes. You did. You came along, thinking you were hot because you were decent with the knife. Then Sarai starts to bug me. 'how is it that Arynn, a novice, is already better than you? Rain, you're being lazy. Arynn can do better than that, why can't you?' Sarai made it seem like I didn't give a shit about anything. I her eyes, you were always better.

"Well, not anymore. You see, I met Liam sometime ago. I was foolish, trying to go up against such a powerful being. He had me pinned down in minutes. I begged for my life, explaining my situation, why I attacked him. For my sister's approval, too make her see who the better hunter was. I mentioned you and he was very interested.

"he explained _his_ situation, the one with you. He wanted you to become an immortal. You refused, and he let you get away because you were young, innocent, too innocent to be brought into his blood-splattered world. Now you're older and most of that innocence is long gone. We made a deal. I bring him you, Sarai, Brick and I get freeblood status." Freeblood status is something that is given to an important human. It makes them equal to vampires.

I look at Liam, he's leaning against a tree, looking at me with hungry eyes.

"I've done what you asked. She's here. Will you hold up your end?"

He approaches her slowly, a lazy grin spreading across his face.

"now my dear, why would I do that?" he pounces in her, sinking razor-sharp fangs into her throat. I cry out and hastily look away, trying not to hear the gurgling sounds. I feel my captor's grip loosen for a moment, hastily I reach for my knife and slam it into his stomach, stunning him. He goes limp and I run for it.

…

As I run, I feel a sickening sense of déjà vu. My nightmare. But I refuse to die this time. coming to an abrupt halt, I spin around to face them, holding my knife in front to me like a sword. Liam holds his hand out, stopping the minions from over taking me. Walking up to me, he staring deeply into my eyes. I hear an angels voice in my head , telling my to drop the knife. Instead I swing it at him, drawing a thin line across his collarbones. It heals instantly. He grabs my neck and lifts me from the ground. I forget out my weapon, dropping it and scratching at his hand, trying to pry iron fingers away from my throat. But to no avail. Black spots bloom on my vision and I can hear my own muffled heartbeat. I feel my body give way as I sink into the darkness.


End file.
